UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - What is your oldest Homebrew / Kit still in everyday use?

Michael Maurice · 3rd Jan 2008, 9:42 pm

Something else that I built about 25 years ago was a telephone timer. In those days before I met my wife, I had lodgers, and in those days there was no itemised phone bill, so we just used the timer to time our phone calls.

This could have been put in the vero board thread but I digress. The circuits were built out of a load of Cmos chips which divided an oscilator down then used decade counters and 7 segment LED drivers.

There is a simple button for start/stop, when the start button was pushed, the unit was brought out of 'standby' the display switched on and the time counted. When you pushed the button again the time stopped, the display stayed on for a few seconds more. A button on the side would recall the last recorded time.

When I married I didn't need the timer and it was left in a drawer.

It recently put in an appearance to time my youngest daughter doing her times tables.

One day I'll photograph it and post some pictures.

3rd Jan 2008, 9:42 pm	#12
Michael Maurice Moderator Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Wembley, Middlesex Posts: 7,224	Re: What is your oldest Homebrew / Kit still in everyday use? Something else that I built about 25 years ago was a telephone timer. In those days before I met my wife, I had lodgers, and in those days there was no itemised phone bill, so we just used the timer to time our phone calls. This could have been put in the vero board thread but I digress. The circuits were built out of a load of Cmos chips which divided an oscilator down then used decade counters and 7 segment LED drivers. There is a simple button for start/stop, when the start button was pushed, the unit was brought out of 'standby' the display switched on and the time counted. When you pushed the button again the time stopped, the display stayed on for a few seconds more. A button on the side would recall the last recorded time. When I married I didn't need the timer and it was left in a drawer. It recently put in an appearance to time my youngest daughter doing her times tables. One day I'll photograph it and post some pictures.